Tuesday, March 28, 2017

I dint get too far last night - cleaned out the kiln (had patter plates and lava cloth in kiln from last batch of wine bottles -

I leave the shelves about 1 inch off the floor and the shelves are washed but I also leave the thicker blanket on in case I can fit something between the molds

got out the molds I want to use and cleaned them off - now to put fresh wash on them - but didnt have water up at the studio yet - then got detoured at the house

so I set up the molds in the kiln for set up

so wont get a chance tonight to wash them or fill as I have a pottery class in oshawa till 9pm and wont be home till 10

and I bought a small on demand hot water unit for the studio so I'll have hot water this year - will work on setting up shelf next week to place it on and the hoses so I can just hook up when the weather is for sure warmer

Monday, March 27, 2017

After I played with marbleing - I decided to re melt my gelatin to reform them - the large one I made and was uneven so I decided on a slightly smaller pan so I would have a nice thick piece to work with

cut it up and put into a glass bowl and put in microwave till it all melted - mixed it up and poured into my teflon pan

the mark on the pan is a burn mark - nothing to do with the gelatin - poured it in - then ran a piece of newsprint over top to get rid of any bubbles - let sit on my stove that is pretty level till it gelled - then put into the fridge to speed the firming up

used a shap knife around edges and pulled it out - with my hand supporting it and layed it out on the rubbermaid serving tray (has a lid) - nice and thick about 1/2" this time and pretty even

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Reading up on how to use the plate better - and having fun - currently using a better quality acrylic - liquitex for now but going to try the dollar store paints - and Americana tole paints as well - and this will lead to my glass I am hoping to use enamels on the gelatin to glass squares and see what happens - excited about this part - just wishing the weather was warmer

this one I took a 2nd pull from same colors after I took the first image and then took the stencil off

this one I did two colors then set images I cut from my stencils and placed them on and then brayered another color over so you can see the silhouettes

this one I used two colors and a brayer and set my stencil on and got the resist image

I am noticing some little tears in the gel - but Like I said if it gets bad I can remelt it and maybe get it level this time and the glycerin keeps it from going bad (so I am told) so this prototype is to see how long it will last - I read some where they have had theirs for over a year and half - using , remelting and reusing and so far so great

I made such a huge piece - 10x 15 ? so I could use full pieces of 8-1/2 by 11 sheet -

the cost to make this size was about 22.00 for all the materials which were glycerin and knox gelatin
I wanted to try it out and see if it was worth it (and it is )

now the real gelli plates cost for a 12 x 14 3/8" thick is 65.69 u.s. amazon canada has one for 88.00 plus 30.00 shipping so 128.00 cdn

so the 20.00 is pretty great although the gelli plates are made from a

I do want to make a smaller one more like 5 x 7 but I am going to find the storage box first - I lucked out on having the rubbermaid flat cake tray that fits this large piece beautifully

they also have round and square ones too -

so the recipe again is :

find a container you will use -(plastic or a non stick surface so it pops out easier ) you want about 3/4" deep is best - make sure it doenst have a center mark - you want a smooth bottom as some people reverse these and use the bottom instead of the top - even a baking sheet - its just hard to move after being full - but its was going to be my first choice till I found the huge pan with deep sides -
set it on a place where you can see if its level or the fridge shelf - check if level - it can sit out to set but takes longer

so pour water into the container measuring to see how many cups to get a thick piece

so making my 9 x 13 I used 4 cups of liquid
so 1/2 is boiling water and 1/2 is glycerin
and the ratio of gelatin is 2 tbsp per cup

4 cups liquid total
2 cups glycerine
2 cups boiling water
8 tbsp gelatin powder (I just put into a container and scooped ) but it worked out to 10 packets

next
I had a big measuring cup but I moved the glycerin and gelatin mixture to a bigger mixing bowl so I could mix it well without spilling ( I have one of those betty crocker red mixing bowls with a spout and handle )

then I poured in 2 cups of boiling water and mixed and mixed - you need to disolve all the gelatin - which has a tendency to go t the bottom of the bowl so use a spoon and keep mixing and checking to see if anything at bottom of the bowl

once done just pour into the container you want to set you gel in

now next time I am going to put a bit of baby oil around the edges to see if I dont have to use the knife - not that it did any damage (they say you can use baby oil to clean up the surface as well ) you dont need on the bottom as it lifts off the base

now some say t leave out - some just pop in fridge - the fridge sets faster
I left overnight till when I got home from work just to be sure it was set

I used an exacto to go around edges as its thin worked fine - thinking maybe baby oil will keep it from sticking but you need to raise one corner to release the suciton - if you screw this up and cut it or tear it into pieces just put it back into your mixing bowl and put into the microwave and nuc it till its liquid again and repour

so far its great - I just dont know what I'm doing in the way of painting and colors as yet but there is a wealth of videos out there to get a gel plate

I want to use every night for a week just to see what happens to the gel plate - but again for what I am doing I dont want to spend 120

so still playing with this ongoing tester

I may make a smaller one too with the leftover glycerin and gelatin I bought - and I found a rectangular glass container about 5 x7 which may work very well

Monday, March 13, 2017

So got to try out my gelatin plate I went around sides with exacto blade and it came out pretty easily once you released sides Of course I thought I had it level but no its thinner on one side pretty flexible when handling Found the perfect container a rubber maid flatware cake container Let's me set paper under the bottom so I can see below Tried a tester worked great I'm total new to this and love the way it lifts the patterns I'm a bit heavy handed with the paint Clean up a breeze as its acrylic and can wipe the gel clean with a baby wipe Although I see I was also heavy handed rolling with the braver and pushing the paper down Good news is clean it and put back in pan and heat it up and it will melt and reset again

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Well I finally made the jelli plate for printing came out cool haven't taken out of pan yet first time I've actually used Knox gelatin but it's for print making a 4 cup mix 2 cups glycerin 2tbsp per total liquid so 8 TbSP of gelatin mix then add 2 cups of boiling water mix till all dissolved then pour in pan and let gel so tomorrow night I'll have my jelli plate ready to use Depending on your age you may remember something called a hectograph when I was young we used to use them to make multiple copies from there was a purple sheet you wrote on then applied to the gel and ran your copies from it This sort of same apply your paints and made great prints

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Was a blast - of course I had to drag just about everything with me - my card making and scrap booking tool kit plus boxes of other things - paints, sprays etc

But I did my first Journal page - using acrylic spray paints I made from dollar store acrylic paints and put into spray bottle from the the dollar store -
Used the paste I made up and clipped some images and had a lot of fun!